Volume One of Classics of Buddhism and Zen contains teachings predominantly from the Chinese Zen (Chan) tradition, including the writings of revered Chinese masters such as Pai-chang, founder of the Chan monastic tradition; Huang-po, one of the forefathers of the Lin-chi-tsung or Rinzai school; Foyan, the great master of the twelfth-century Chinese Zen "renaissance"; and many others.

The volume includes:

Zen Lessons: The Art of Leadership This guide to enlightened conduct for people in positions of authority is based on the teachings of several great Zen masters of China.

Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom Drawn from the records of the great Chinese Zen masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, this collection represents the most open and direct forms of instruction in the entire Zen canon.

The Five Houses of Zen These writings are widely considered to be preeminent among Zen literature.

Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation The meditation instructions in this book focus on attaining a state of true objectivity that enables the practitioner to use all other forms of meditation freely and consciously, without becoming fixated or obsessed.

Instant Zen Presented here are the teachings of Foyan, who offers simple exercises in attention and thought designed to lead to insight into the real nature of self.

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Product description

About the Author

Thomas Cleary holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He is the translator of over fifty volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts from Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Pali, and Arabic.

This product was a gift, and I have no first hand contact with it. Nevertheless, its recipient informed he of his complete satisfaction with its delivery and contents. I can rate it only less than perfect for the simple reason that I lack any first hand experience with the item I purchased for someone else. In no way is this rating intended to convey any dissatisfaction with the book whatsoever.

All Five Volumes of Classics of Buddhism and Zen contain the translations of some of the most essential literature of Buddhism and Zen.

Volume One focuses primarily on the classic Chinese masters of Zen (like Pai-chang, Lin-chi-tsung [J.Rinzai] and his teacher, Huang-po, Yunmen, and more), but also contains some gems from Japanese masters (including Eihei Dogen), and a wonderful translation of one of the classic meditation treatises by the Korean master Chinul.

As the Collected Works of Thomas Cleary, these translations span his remarkably prolific career. Finally, they have become available in this beautiful, accessible five-volume set. This five-volume set includes nearly all of Thomas Cleary's translations (some have even been slightly revised and updated). They also include all the supplemental material included in the original individual translations, ie. glossaries, notes, indexes, Introductions, and Cleary's own insightful commentaries.

Only a handful of Thomas Cleary's Buddhist and Zen translations are not included in this set, primarily because their own bulk would necessarily constitute a volume unto themselves-these include, The Blue Cliff Record (trans. with J.C. Cleary), The Book of Serenity, and The Avatamsaka Sutra.

Volume One contains:

Zen Lessons: The Art of Leadership

Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom

The Five Houses of Zen

Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation

Instant Zen

All five volumes are formatted for ease of access and reading. The set, or the individual volumes are a perfect gift for anyone with an interest in Zen or Buddhism, Eastern Religion or Eastern Philosophy. The Hardcovers are sturdy and finely bound, the Trade Paper are also made to last.

this book has so much in it it is amazing! it covers five different zen perspectives (the five houses), the teachings of a slough of teachers that likely go outside the five houses, how too meditate in the zen fashion, how too think "zen", how too lead in a zen way, and so on. a bit of it is explained by the narrator in the form of very useful introductions and some notes, but the bulk of this book is translations of the actual works of the ancient zen masters! complete works of the guys you've heard about, or read little snippets or quotes by before.

there are so many gems it is really impressive.

the fact that he represents all five houses is really something. the way zen has been presented too the west is that it's just one thing, or one school. in reality it doesn't even fit into five different subdivisions (houses)!!! there are hundreds of schools, each teaching somewhat the same, but also with critical differences. you can't just pick up any zen book from any school by any teacher and expect consistency. and that's even if you stick too just chinese zen (chan) or just japanese zen. even within those countries alone it is divided many, many times. then if you include the ten or more other asian countries that have a zen tradition, it gets even more divided!

being able too see the different ideas grouped into their appropriate houses was very illuminating considering how many people would just lump all the teachings together even though they don't always fit!